MLB.com Twins beat reporter Rhett Bollinger keeps you up to date on all Twins news

Game 20: Baker meets with media

MINNEAPOLIS — Twins right-hander Scott Baker met with the media today for the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery in New York on April 17.

The surgery came as a surprise, as he was scheduled to undergo surgery to clean up scar tissue on his flexor pronator tendon, but Dr. David Altchek decided he also needed his ulnar collateral ligament repaired once he began the operation.

Baker, though, said he was prepped for the possibility of the Tommy John surgery, as Altchek told him there was about a 20-percent chance he’d need the procedure.

“Initially, I was pretty emotional but I think a lot of it had to do with the anesthesia,” Baker said of his first reaction. “Once it wore off and I kind of came to I was in the right frame of mind and I talked to the doctor and he explained to me what was going on I was OK with it. You can’t make any guarantees but he was fairly certain that the ligament would have gone shortly after.”

Baker, 30, said the rehab time for the surgery is expected to be nine to 12 months because the ulnar collateral ligament was not replaced. Instead, it was just strengthened with a tendon from his near his hamstring. The rehab for the originally planned surgery was expected to be six months.

In other news, right-hander Kyle Waldrop, who is on the DL with a UCL strain, will head out to Fort Myers, Fla. tomorrow to being a rehab assignment. He’s expected to need three too four appearances in extended Spring Training before he’ll be ready to go.

First baseman Chris Parmelee also said he’s feeling fine after being hit on the helmet on Wednesday. But there’s still timetable for his return, as he’s still day to day.

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